Gallipoli and Troy

The Gallipoli peninsula is in southeastern Turkey.  During WWI, it was the site of an eight month long struggle between ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and Turks.

The ANZACs, fighting with Great Britain and France were trying to gain control of the Dardanelles, which would allow the Allies to access the Black Sea and provide supplies to Russia.  The Turks, then part of the Ottoman Empire, siding with the Germans, put up a great resistance, with the resulting loss of 130,000 Allied and Turk lives.

 The Allies never succeeded in gaining control of the Dardanelles.  The Gallipoli campaign, a bit like the ANZAC version of D Day, horrific and in the end, pointless as it was, was heralded as bringing about patriotism and national pride in the newly formed nations of Australia and New Zealand.

2015 was the 100 year anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, and we decided we should pay our respects.

After a somber day, we went in search of a pub, and ended up spending the entire night chatting to some local guys.  They took us to a few different clubs, introduced us to their friends, and generally, showed us a great time.  Despite all our traveling, we rarely get to spend an extended amount of time with locals, and this was such fun.

Battling the Irish flu, we toured Troy the next day.  The ruins of the city that inspired epic poems and terrible movies, were discovered in the 1870s.  Ancient Troy is confusing because there are actually 9 eras of civilizations layered on top of each other.

The first layer, 5,000 years old (!), was a small civilization, but the city grew as subsequent communities were established on the rubble of the previous inhabitants.  The Trojan War occurred around layer 7.

The hideous wooden horse at the entrance, is definitely not the Trojan Horse; there are no remains of that.  But, after filming the movie “Troy” (in Malta and Mexico, not Turkey) producers donated the wooden horse from the film to the nearby town of Çannakkale, and residents comically call it the “Brad Pitt horse”.

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Beer of Choice: Efes